Extremely annoying pieces of classical music

[Ferretfancy]

Personally, I don't think the music is terrible at all. Composers are still allowed to write tunes.

True, we all like tunes, I think it was Schoenberg who said that there is still plenty of music to be written in E minor. My problem with Khachaturyan is not his tunes, its the banality of his tunes

[edashtav]

My problem with Khachaturyan is not his tunes, its the banality of his tunes

[Ferretfancy]

You've put your finger on the issue : tunes that are predictable and lack complexity quickly cloy, turning into the most awful earworm wax.

Listen to 3 minutes of AK's tuneful stuff and you're stuffed for 24 hours or more. They need an earworm health warning on the can.

[Nick Armstrong]

My heart sinks when I see Pictures programmed yet again (particularly by pianists).

I so agree... In a way it's wrong for this thread, as the piece itself is fine - the first few times I heard it, it was fun. But it seems to be an 'accessible showpiece' of first resort so often and being merely 'pictorial/atmospheric' it lost its charm for me long ago alas. Like yours, my heart sinks if i see it programmed and I avoid it. The only redeeming feature is once in a while to hear orchestrations other than the Ravel (with apologies to my alter ego above) - so the other morning, Mr Cowan introduced Stokie's version, and despite the sinking feeling I didn't switch off, and actually enjoyed hearing it differently for once...

[Barbirollians]

Splutter splutter - I say try Ida Haendel in the Khachaturian Violin Concerto live in the 1950s on Hanssler Classics .

[Nick Armstrong]

Splutter splutter - I say try Ida Haendel in the Khachaturian Violin Concerto live in the 1950s on Hanssler Classics .

In preference to Pictures at an Exhibition, you mean?

[Serial_Apologist]

I so agree... In a way it's wrong for this thread, as the piece itself is fine - the first few times I heard it, it was fun. But it seems to be an 'accessible showpiece' of first resort so often and being merely 'pictorial/atmospheric' it lost its charm for me long ago alas. Like yours, my heart sinks if i see it programmed and I avoid it. The only redeeming feature is once in a while to hear orchestrations other than the Ravel (with apologies to my alter ego above) - so the other morning, Mr Cowan introduced Stokie's version, and despite the sinking feeling I didn't switch off, and actually enjoyed hearing it differently for once...

Receptivity is important: I suppose it could be that your psychological disposition on that occasion led to you hearing it differently, rather than it was different in any qualitative sense.

[Nick Armstrong]

Receptivity is important: I suppose it could be that your psychological disposition on that occasion led to you hearing it differently, rather than it was different in any qualitative sense.

Oh Stokowski's version is different alright

[ahinton]

Oh Stokowski's version is different alright

They usually were!

Anyway, the reference to Schönberg (or Schoenberg, as he had styled himelf by then) made by Ferretfancy above, though correctly attributed, is in the wrong key; he's supposed to have mentioned C major, not E minor (although had he mentioned E flat minor he might have been nmore easily believed, given his Second Chamber Symphony written some years after his first dodecaphonic pieces). I once tried very hard to track down the actual reference but without success; I think that he didn't write it anywhere but actually said it and it's probobaly recorded somewhere but I've no idea where.

[pastoralguy]

Splutter splutter - I say try Ida Haendel in the Khachaturian Violin Concerto live in the 1950s on Hanssler Classics .

[Barbirollians]

Fabulous performance - hair stand on end stuff .

[cloughie]

True, we all like tunes, I think it was Schoenberg who said that there is still plenty of music to be written in E minor. My problem with Khachaturyan is not his tunes, its the banality of his tunes

Was that before or after he abandoned tunes? and I wonder how many people were introduced to Khachaturyan by the Onedin Line or Love Sculpture's Sabre Dance?

[Barbirollians]

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem especially the treacly Pie Jesu . Does it count as classical music ?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Does it count as "Music"?

[grandchant]

Does it count as "Music"?

Yes IMO. I agree that it's treacly, but I find it a valid setting of the text. On the whole I think Andrew Lloyd Webber is a good composer, as was his father before him.

[grandchant]

PS My nomination would be any C20 setting of the Te Deum that sounds like Walton's.